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marine debris

Dive Friends Bonaire is doing everything in their power to help their endangered sea turtle population. Last month they gathered 115 volunteers to Dive Against Debris targeting the South Pier of Bonaire. This working pier is often used for fishing and normally off limits to divers.

For this year’s Project AWARE Debris Month of Action we pledge to bring back some marine rubbish everyday from our dives for the whole 31 days of September. Be it a big clean-up such as those with the Save Koh Tao Group, or just a few items found while teaching a course.

Enthusiastic divers keen to put a stop to marine rubbish are saying no to straws. It’s a small step which makes a big difference. Straws are one of the top items found by divers who regularly Dive Against Debris.

It's one of the greatest shows on earth: the Olympic Games 2012. 10,500 athletes from around the world descend on London for the next 19 days of competitions, tears and triumphs as they go for gold. Let the games begin.

But as well as the athletes, London also play host to the hundreds of thousands of spectators, Olympic organisers, media, businesses, politicians, caterers - the list goes on. London will be a hive of action, pumping and buzzing with energy and adrenaline.

NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette arrived back in its homeport of Honolulu a few days ago after a month in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The team of 17 scientists collected nearly 50 metric tons of marine debris, which threatens monk seals, sea turtles and other marine life in the coral reef ecosystem, in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). NOAA has conducted annual removal missions of marine debris in the NWHI since 1996 as part of a coral restoration effort.

Project AWARE together with other NGOs leading the fight against marine litter is calling on European countries to set a 50% reduction target in marine litter.

As part of a requirement to comply with the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) - a legislative initiative that uses an ecosystem approach to improve the management of human activities that affect marine environment including marine litter - European Union (EU) member states are required to finalise their marine environmental targets for 2020 by 15th July 2012.

Plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America is reaching the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined stomach contents of beached northern fulmars on the coasts of British Columbia, Canada, and the states of Washington and Oregon, U.S.A.

"Like the canary in the coal mine, northern fulmars are sentinels of plastic pollution in our oceans," says Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and a gr MORE

Working globally and acting locally has never been so important. If you’re a local ocean hero trying to make a difference in your community or you have a project that needs an extra push – then the Ocean Action Project is for you!